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Coffee Grounds--TOO MUCH??? nearly short story
news.verizon.net said:
Thanks Pat & simy. So far here's what I did: I'm not really a granular guy so shot the bed with some calcium nitrate and mag sulfate, but first scattered some pelletized lime (only type I had.) I also sprayed both Neptune's Harvest (2-4-1) & Maxicrop seaweed powder (1-0-4) at 2-3x rate. I may be able to score some wood ash from GF's fire pit at her summer trailer but can't guarantee what else got burned there too. I'd maybe pass on rained on ashes of not entirely known origin... The drip system uses Plantex 15-15-18 w/Micros (soilless mix formula.) It's on the trickle setting, I think 1000:1 (water to mixed fert) and runs anytime the drip is on (usually around 30 min per day except rainy days.) The bed is pretty much saturated from the rains the last week or two plus the flooding I did--the driveway started getting wet after 15-20 minutes of the drip being on. That's likely not helping thing, your highly organic soil being so saturated. Roots need oxygen. I also scattered some 14-14-14 Osmocote, though it's pretty tough to scratch in now. Maybe put some fresh compost over everything again? Or try spraying some high P water soluble like Miracle-Gro or Bloom Booster? I also have some muriate of potash I can disolve & spray, and may have some triple-super phosphate left but don't want to overdo things. Plus I'm noticing we are going in 2 different directions--soluble vs OG. I like the Osmocote (slow, sustained release). The Miracle-Gro or Bloom Booster might help. (You could do a small area and see if it hurts or helps.) I don't know how much OG can help this year and probably can add leaves & refresh all or 4-6" of the compost in the Fall, or next year, but what's best for an '04 crop? I always thought bone meal was slow acting. I think your soil is highly organic already and needs some mineral bulk and from your descriptions maybe even something like perlite to pump up the volume and add airspace. I am highly devoted to compost and organic matter, but it *can* be overdone. I'm beginning to think that you might have better results with your drip irrigation w/soilless fertilizer if you were planting in nearly pure sand topped with a mulch of compost. You're definitely having a soil test done before adding anything this fall, right? As for not finding greensand locally, I'm not entirely surprised. It's heavy, and (seemingly) low-value as a fertilizer. But it provides a host of micro nutrients and improves soil texture (and the K it provides is not in a highly leachable form -- the low 'available K' rating is offset by the large residual amount). -- Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast) Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced. (attributed to Don Marti) |
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